Centrifugal separation apparatuses are a type of apparatus which supplies a liquid to be processed containing solid matter into a rotating bowl and gives a centrifugal force to the liquid to be processed to allow separation thereof such as solid-liquid separation, liquid-liquid separation, and solid-liquid-liquid separation depending on the purpose. The centrifugal separation apparatus is widely used in various industrial fields without limitation.
The centrifugal separation apparatuses include vertical centrifugal separation apparatuses in which a bowl is rotated about a vertical axis as a rotation axis and horizontal centrifugal separation apparatuses in which a bowl is rotated about a horizontal axis as a rotation axis. The vertical centrifugal separation apparatus is applicable, for example in drug and chemical fields, due to the structure of the apparatus in which a casing accommodating the bowl has higher air tightness than in the horizontal centrifugal separation apparatus. The vertical centrifugal separation apparatus, however, is inconvenient in performing cleaning operation of the bowl.
Patent Document 1 has disclosed a vertical centrifugal separation apparatus in which it is easy to perform operation of discharging solid matter from a bowl which is a cylindrical rotational tube. The vertical centrifugal separation apparatus requires wide space above the apparatus in removing the bowl from the casing in order to discharge solid matter. It is thus difficult to remove the bowl in some of the installation places of the apparatus. In the vertical centrifugal separation apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, the casing accommodating the bowl is rotatable to at least 90 degrees such that the casing is overturned to a horizontal level to pull out the bowl in a horizontal direction.
In this manner, the vertical centrifugal separation apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 has the structure in which the bowl can be easily pulled out. Thus, the apparatus can be installed in limited space such as a clean room and a sterile room and can be used preferably in food, drug, medical item, and biotechnology-related fields.
For example when a liquid (centrifuged liquid) centrifuged through centrifugation is a target, the liquid remaining in the bowl represents a loss each time the bowl is pulled out of the casing in the vertical centrifugal separation apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, although this is not recognized as a problem when a target is centrifuged solid matter. For example, in the food, drug, medical item, and biotechnology-related fields, the manufacturing unit price or the cost of the centrifuged liquid may be significantly high. In such a case, there is a demand to recover not only the centrifuged liquid obtained in performing centrifugation but also the liquid remaining in the bowl as much as possible when the centrifugation is stopped.